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    A WEEK IN SCOTLAND. 191

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    A —. ~* You Need Not Be Afraid, Dear Rea...

    is an ancient chair , with an hour-glass let into its crests , as if to warn him who sits therein not to hold forth too prosily . But this

    Fore-Hall was unused during the busy week , save by a few loungers or letter-writerswho made their-way in for the sake of the peace

    and quiet not to , be found elsewhere . For some reason it is considered as sacred to Learning and her councils , and nothing so modern

    as Social Science can be admitted . Whenever I entered that room I bethought me of the Scottish lords of Queen Mary ' s time ; on

    such a scene would they have played their parts , and hatched coniracies guarded by the dagger and the sword .

    sp "Where , then , were the " Sections" held ? In the class-rooms of the College , where the students are wont to assemble in pursuit of

    materia medica , philosophy , or Greek . Public Health settled itself comfortablin the Greek Class-roomand there held forth for four

    days in the y most cheerful manner on sniall , -pox , scarlet-fever , and eonsumptionon the influence of tobacco smoking and the prevention

    of accidents , . Galen and Hippocrates must have , been very much astonished , if their ghosts lingered on the Greek benches , to hear of

    the astonishing recipes come up since their time ; and Mercury , the god of thieving and medicine combinedmight have stolen the last

    new dodges in the healing art , to practise , on Olympus , if he paid proper attention to information collected on the banks of the Clyde ,

    unless , indeed , the exceeding multiplicity of the truths unfolded gratis destroyed his desire for acquisition .

    Education abode in the Common Hall , the largest of all the rooms , and there Sir James Kay Shuttleworth guided the discussion in his

    own excellent and sympathetic style . But Punishment and Reformation were obliged to cross the street , and set up their tent in a

    large class-room out of the College itself , agreeing as best they might . Here it was that Miss Carpenter read to a densely crowded

    audience , and Dr . Guthrie poured out the most eloquent and humorous speech , by all accounts , delivered during the week .

    Jurisprudence found shelter within the main building , and was vigorously attended by lawyers . And , lastly , Social Economy , divided into three

    sections , talked away more vigorously than all the others on every subject under the sun . Here it was that the trades' unions waxed

    warm indeed , and taxation levied its due . Here it was that papers which appeared to have lost their way out of other departments

    , strayed and stumbled , and were taken in . Here it was also , I believethat a certain mysterious subject called " General Average "

    grew and , flourished . I did not hear it ; I do not know in the least what it means ; I only know that every now and then an inquiry

    being made for Mr . Brown , it was whispered , " He is in at _Getieral Average" and I used to speculate what on earth it could mean . An

    average in money , population , cloth , or bacon , is an idea into which I can enter—but what in the world is a General Average ? I

    remember inextricable sums in the arithmetic book about emptying gallons

    into so many quart pots , and wretched nightmares of the relations

    A Week In Scotland. 191

    A WEEK IN _SCOTLAND . 191

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1860, page 191, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111860/page/47/